Famous Wisconsinites

Famous Wisconsinites

Selected Famous Natives and Residents (alive and dead)

Famous Wisconsinites

Selected Famous Natives and Residents (alive and dead)

Pat O'Brien

Pat O'Brien - Actor; born William Joseph Patrick "Pat" O'Brien on November 11, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. O'Brien had over 100 screen credits. Being of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press.

As a child, O'Brien served as an altar boy at Gesu Church, while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets in Milwaukee. He attended Marquette Academy (n/k/a Marquette University High School), an all-male, Jesuit, Roman Catholic school in Milwaukee, with fellow actor and lifelong friend, Spencer Tracy.
Both O'Brien and Tracy enlisted in the United States Navy together and they attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center where they were still students when World War I came to an end. After the war, O'Brien went back to Marquette Academy to finish his secondary schooling and later attended Marquette University.
While still at college, O'Brien decided to seek work as an actor.

One of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, O'Brien played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. He is especially well-remembered for his roles in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and Some Like It Hot (1959).
He was frequently paired onscreen with Hollywood legend James Cagney.

O'Brien's movie career slowed in the early 1950s but he still managed to get work in television. His close friend, Spencer Tracy fought with MGM to get roles for O'Brien in two of his films, The People Against O'Hara (1951) and The Last Hurrah (1958).

Below: Movie Trailer for Angels with Dirty Faces appearing James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as Father Connolly.